Losing interest in the guitar.

[Jimmy Dean]

I started out on bass in 1965, played it for about 4 years & gave it up for the guitar. I have played guitar since. Just over a year ago I got an inexpencive Gretch Jr Jet shortscale bass. I have so much fun playing this thing that I don't like picking up the guitar anymore. I find that I am learning more about music in general & understanding scales. I am also finding that I am getting alot more opportunities to play. Should have stuck with it years ago.

[Mike SS]

Although guitar has been my main instrument since '65, I keep a P-bass around for some variety in my life. I started learning the bass around '96 so I could put some bottom in my song demos. It fascinated me once I started playing it.

[src9000]

Originally Posted by Jimmy Dean

I started out on bass in 1965, played it for about 4 years & gave it up for the guitar. I have played guitar since. Just over a year ago I got an inexpencive Gretch Jr Jet shortscale bass. I have so much fun playing this thing that I don't like picking up the guitar anymore. I find that I am learning more about music in general & understanding scales. I am also finding that I am getting alot more opportunities to play. Should have stuck with it years ago.

Follow your muse where it will.

[Chris S.]

Originally Posted by Jimmy Dean

I am also finding that I am getting alot more opportunities to play.

I've been playing guitar for almost 5 decades, and bass for 4 decades. I've said for many years that everyone always needs a bass player; no one ever needs another guitar player. CS

[dman]

I picked up a Korean Squier Jazz bass and a little Crate bass amp for $100 off of CL about a year ago. It's really a fun change of pace to play bass along with CDs...I'm no James Jamerson, but, man...it's fun!

[thumbpick]

um... well... a bass is a guitar

[Coop47]

Originally Posted by Chris S.

I've been playing guitar for almost 5 decades, and bass for 4 decades. I've said for many years that everyone always needs a bass player; no one ever needs another guitar player. CS

+ a million.

[blowtorch]

yeah I took up bagpipes cause of that

[Delta Blues]

I quit playing guitar for almost a decade due to a divorce. I was helping my dad with a stallion one day when the horse got agitated by my dad and crushed me into a wood fence. The horses weight blew out my shoulder. I pretty much didn't have a right arm for a year. It was a very painful ordeal. Months later by chance I acquired a guitar in a trade. That was all it took to reignite that old spark. I got a amp from the pawnshop a few days later. I actually used the guitar as a exercise tool to rehabilitate my shoulder and arm muscles. To this day I still don't have a full range of motion. Probably 90%. But it was the guitar that got me back feeling human again.

[honeycreek]

I don't understand why playing 1 means you can't play the other? Perhaps I'm a little strange but I play a lot of different instruments and find that focusing on one instrument almost always makes me a better musician on the others.

[chippertheripper]

Originally Posted by Jimmy Dean

I started out on bass in 1965, played it for about 4 years & gave it up for the guitar. I have played guitar since. Just over a year ago I got an inexpencive Gretch Jr Jet shortscale bass. I have so much fun playing this thing that I don't like picking up the guitar anymore. I find that I am learning more about music in general & understanding scales. I am also finding that I am getting alot more opportunities to play. Should have stuck with it years ago.

Though quite a bit ummm....younger.... than you, I'm sort of doing the same thing, but with different results. Now that I'm back to playing bass and forced to play real scales and runs, I can't wait to play guitar and apply what I'm learning. I hope in the end it makes me a better guitarist all around. Nowhere to go but up, IMO.

[LarsOS]

Originally Posted by Jimmy Dean

Should have stuck with it years ago.

I know exactly what you mean. I tried to be a guitarist for three years. Going back to the bass is the best and most inspiring thing I've done in a long time. At least three years.

[Lunchie]

I have never given up on the guitar... It gave up on me!

[KCKC]

I've recently been "re-inspired" in my bass playing. I have a guitar I'll write tunes on but lately I've really been exploring the nuance of bass and laying down a rock solid groove with confidence.

I could be off base - no pun intended - but I think there is a difference in the sound of my playing when I'm "tentative" vs. 100% confident as to my playing a tune.

I love playing bass!

kc

[WCK85]

I traded for a Japanese Fender P-bass a few months ago. I really wanted a bass so I could gig more. I love playing guitar but I also love playing music. There are SO many guitar players out there.

[akukulich]

Originally Posted by Jimmy Dean

I started out on bass in 1965, played it for about 4 years & gave it up for the guitar. I have played guitar since. Just over a year ago I got an inexpencive Gretch Jr Jet shortscale bass. I have so much fun playing this thing that I don't like picking up the guitar anymore. I find that I am learning more about music in general & understanding scales. I am also finding that I am getting alot more opportunities to play. Should have stuck with it years ago.

I went the other direction. I've been playing the bass since about 1980 and have always loved it and kept busy at it. My wife gave me a Tele for my 40th birthday, and I haven't wanted to put it down since. Now I gig regularly on both instruments but if I had to choose, I'd play guitar. I felt weird about that for a while, like I was wasting my experience. One day I figured out that everything I learned about the bass and playing in the rhythm section influences what I do on the guitar. It's all part of the process.

[TinyGomery]

I like playing other instruments to keep things fresh. I've played guitar for 25 years, mandolin for 15 years, and fiddle for 5 years. Playing mandolin and fiddle have definitely helped me be a better guitarist and vice versa. And if I get sick of one, I play another instrument. I'm also a lot more in demand not being just another guitarist.

I don't need to learn the bass because my wife is a great bass player. And my ego is too big to play bass right.

[JohnS]

I play both. I get a different musical / emotional experience from them, and I enjoy playing them both.

[brookdalebill]

I still love to play both.
I've played guitar for 45 years, and bass for 20.
My bass playing is stuck at the 5 year chops level, but I actually
like playing bass a little more.
It's all about the drummer, with bass, for me.
I great drummer will "lift" you.
Ironically, every gig I have this month, including NYE is a bass gig.
Maybe Im gettin' better at it.

['56Teleman]

I've thought of starting a jug band but every time I get one empty enough to get some tonal range out of it I fall over.